Ruth and Peter go west and then head back east and then just keep on going....: We settle in to Southwold...

Our first overnight stay in Southwold - two nights. The inherited mattress we frowned on turned out to be very comfortable. We got stuck back into the kitchen and finished cleaning, and unpacked the boxes we had taken down. The oven took a while to clean as did the extractor fan, but what a virtuous feeling when you at last peel off the rubber gloves. We managed to wash floors, vacuum carpets, mend things and gradually work out which beds to put where, with a lot of measuring
. Peter found the instructions manual and programmed the central heating and I even had time to wash the window sills on the street and the tiles on the front step and net curtains. I also met a lady who runs 'Rachel's Cleaning Service' and she is going in to do the bathrooms and the loos at the end of the week.

A clean oven!

We moved the table in the kitchen so that we are now sitting by a big window looking out on the garden.    Talking of which, here are the before pictures.   As you can see, plenty of space to sit and quite a lot of overgrown shrubs and lots of pots!   Big and small. Some contain interesting plants and others contain what look like weeds.   It's going to be interesting to see what grows out of them in the spring. There are also very large plants/shrubs in pots that will be a devil to move as the roots have probably gone down into the concrete or earth. I've signed up for a garden waste bin collection to cart all the weeds and prunings away.

In addition to the pots, which will be a pleasure to cultivate, and the overgrown flower beds, which will be a challenge, there is junk everywhere! Buckets, plastic bags of goodness knows what and broken toys and broken household items thrown into corners. We made a preliminary collection to go to the dump. There's an interesting assortment of spades and buckets for the boys together with a little wheelbarrow that will probably make it to the beach in the summer, and some surf boards!

It wasn't all work and no play. We tried out a small television but no matter which bit we plugged in where, we couldn't get BBC only ITV and commercial stations.   We'll have to get a man in... We also made serveral sorties to the shops.   Everything is literally on the door step. It takes seconds to go and buy a paper. And what's more there's a charity shop next door which has been very useful today. We made three trips with arms full of things we have found in the house that we don't need.

The only thing we didn't do during the two days we were there was go to the end of the road and look at the sea or walk on the beach!   Still, there'll be lots of time for that.

Moving day next Sunday. Our furniture is coming out of storage at a friend's and being taken down to Southwold. So more unpacking and arranging next week.